Tools In Action takes the Dirt Monkey shopping, Matt bangs more wood than ever and Rick goes medieval on a 4 by 8. This is your Power Tool Week In Review.
We’re going to start this week off with a Bang. Specifically the sound Matt makes, when he bangs on wood. Matt and his fellow framers shared a video this week that features 8 days of framing of an entire house in a 9 minute time-lapse. They start with a slap of concrete, and then quickly work their way through a mountain of material until a new home is born right before your eyes. If you want to watch the whole series, presumably at normal speeds, you can find all 8 days over at Matt Bangs Wood on Youtube.
The Makita 12” 18 volt X2 Cordless Miter saw has been making the rounds recently, and this week it landed in the hands of the pros over at Pro Tool Reviews. By now we’re used to hearing great things about this saw, but the guys surprised us by declaring the Makita XSL08 to be their favorite Miter Saw. Not their favorite cordless, their favorite miter saw. Period. They say they used the saw on a few remodeling projects and found it has great power, accuracy, and portability. If you want to see the PTR crew fall in love with a saw, head over to Pro Tool Reviews on youtube.
Are you guys ready for a tool war? It doesn’t matter. You’re getting one. Stan the Dirt Monkey visited the troublemakers over at TIA and decided to determine once in for all if a $59 drill from Harbor Freight could beat a $200 DeWALT. They end up testing a Drill Master, No clue what that is, Bauer, Hercules, Ridgid and Dewalt, and if you’ve ever watched these three separately, you can probably guess what they’re like together. Our favorite part was when Dan, normally the wild card of the bunch, tried to talk some logic into the other two, suggesting a jig for their chuck to chuck test, only to be shot down by Eric and Stan… Do I really need to keep convincing you to watch this video? You can find it at Stanley Dirt Monkey Genadek on youtube.
Speaking of exhausting comparos, The titans of tools over at Tool Box Buzz are at it again this week. This time, they take 3 of the 4 cordless cut off saws and put them to the test. Stihl, being the 4th battery-powered cut off saws declined to participate. Stihl, if you’re listening, we don’t know why you declined, but for what it’s worth, there are no better hands to put your saws to the test, than TBB. With that said, they did test the Milwaukee, DeWALT and Husqvarna. Being a TBB Comparo, there are a solid 20 minutes of detailed research and testing. If you think it’s time to add metal and masonry cutting to your portfolio, head over to ToolBoxBuzz on youtube.
There were a lot of tool reviews this week. We’re going to wrap up our youtube coverage in the tool Review Zone, with clint, and the new Makita 36V 7 and a quarter inch Circular Saw. We can always count on Clint to spend a lot of time putting a tool through it’s paces, and he certainly does here. But more importantly, he’s always honest and quick to point out flaws. This time around, after fawning over it’s power and the smooth way it delivers it, he ran into an issue with the blade guard, which had to be manually moved every time he cut. So far a few commenters have reported zero problems with their own saws, so it’s possible his was a fluke. If so, this might be a near perfect circular saw. You can judge for yourself over in the Tool Review Zone.
Rainfall Projects shared a video where he made some pretty unique gifts for his groomsmen and his father in law for his wedding. Mr.Chambers custom made Irish Hurleys with the groomsmen’s name on them using a piece of Ash slab and his CNC machine. Now, I have no idea what a Hurley is, but it sorta looks like the weirdest hockey stick I have ever seen. You can see how the turned out at Rainfall Projects on YouTube.
Our Spanish speaking Canadian friend posted a new project where he made what looks like a stunning cutting board made with wooden bricks and grout! Such a creative idea! The instructions are in Spanish, but Martin does such a great job of filming, that I doubt you’ll need to understand what he’s saying. Go watch for yourself at Martin Chavarria on YouTube!
Ana White used minimal tools to build a coffee table modeled after an earlier version she built for her entryway. She explained that living in Rural Alaska means that you can’t always run out to the hardware store to get something you forgot or need so sometimes you just learn to compromise. In this case, she had to use two pieces of wood for the top instead of one. The final piece turned out beautiful. If you want some inspiration to get making this weekend go check out Ana White on YouTube.
It’s time again for Construction Industry News, brought to you by Construction Junkie. This week we’re witnessing the rise of the robots on the jobsite, starting with Boston Dynamic’s robo pup, spot. For a few months now BD has been talking about releasing their first robot for purchase, and this week they’re finally offering the opportunity to buy your very own digital dag… well, you can lease one at least. That is if you have a good plan for its use and a bunch of money. They see spot working in a variety of roles, including inspection, security, and entertainment. In case they’re listening, I for one welcome our new robot overlords.
Moving on to even scarier jobsite developments, a group of Michigan engineers strapped a nail gun to a drone to do some roofing work. Specifically they attached a Ryobi 18v brad nailer to a DJI S1000 Octocopter and promptly proceeded to nail 4 shingles in place while only killing 9 other roofers on their team. Not a bad trade-off for automation. They don’t specifically mention the deaths in their research paper, but as a Buckeye, I can tell you first hand how bad their aim is, and made up the deaths based on a strong assumption.